The Anti-Human Trafficking Circle (AHTC) of the FIA Lahore has been using delaying tactics to take legal action against a travel agent, who had issued a fake visa to a citizen after taking money, for the last eight months due to reasons best known to the authorities.

The complainant has alleged that the Investigation Officer (IO) used to summon him but never summoned the accused for proper action. He also alleged that the IO had demanded ‘Kharcha’ from him but he refused to pay even a single penny as he had given his entire money to the human trafficker.

The complainant, Muhammad Ashfaq, son of Chaudhary Hafeezullah, a resident of Main Bazaar, Lakho Der, Batapur, had filed an application (No. 311) on January 23, 2012 with the office of FIA Lahore director against Faisal, the son of Siddique, a resident of Mominpura. In his application, he stated that Faisal had taken Rs800,000 from him for sending him to Italy in 2007 and Faisal gave him a visa of Italy in April 2008. However, the visa was proved bogus, Ashfaq said, adding that when he demanded his money back from Faisal, he gave him a cheque (No 28248691) of a private bank. But the cheque was dishonored by the bank due to insufficient balance, he said. The investigation of Ashfaq’s case was given to Inspector FIA/AHTC, Rao Ajmal Farooq, under an Inquiry No. V. 151/12 on February 16, 2012. The inspector summoned Ashfaq, got the details of the incident but allegedly kept it pending till date. Ashfaq said that he used to appear before the inspector every time he was summoned but the accused never turned up. He added that as the FIA inspector had not taken any action against Faisal, he used to hurl life threats to him (Ashfaq) through different means. He also said that the accused had resorted to a show of weapons outside his house to terrify him.

Ashfaq went on to say that he had collected Rs800,000 by selling gold ornaments and valuables of his home for better future but Faisal had deprived him of his money. He said that now he had no money to feed his children and parents but the FIA officials did not bother to take action in his case for the last over five years.

The complainant has appealed to the director general FIA for immediate action and justice.

Inspector Rao Ajmal on the issue said that the process of legal action against human traffickers was lengthy and it took seven to eight months for registration of an FIR. He added that he had completed his initial investigations into the case and recommended registration of FIR against the accused. Rao further said that the FIR would be registered soon after the approval from the FIA director.